Episode 188: New Coke Versus Crystal Pepsi
We chug back in time to revisit the marketing campaigns of two legendary beverage busts to see how they go down a few decades later.
EVERY HUMAN EPISODE
We chug back in time to revisit the marketing campaigns of two legendary beverage busts to see how they go down a few decades later.
We venture into deep space to explore how today’s brands are bringing their products, services, and marketing into the cosmos.
We sense the power of Mastercard’s new haptic logo and explore how other brands can engage touch, smell, and taste to create more immersive experiences.
We promulgate and elucidate ten arcane, recondite, and enigmatic lexemes we believe warrant greater attention in the marketing realm.
We bring together the most unusual, unexpected, and unnatural brand bedfellows of the 2020s. Slap some caviar on your Pringles because worlds are about to collide!
We convene in the courtroom to adjudicate the cases of two recent commercials from big tech brands that stirred up controversy and got yanked from the airwaves.
We fight back against the powers of “big podcasting” by pouring out our thoughts about Oatly’s guerrilla marketing maneuver to protest the misleading mind control of big dairy.
We salute six decades of America’s preeminent toaster pastry by serving up some notable pieces of Pop-Tarts marketing and ranking the most iconic Pop-Tarts flavors.
We unlace ideas about the new Brooks “Let’s Run There” campaign featuring Jeremy Renner and jog through our rankings of the buzziest running shoe brands of the current moment.
We poke the potential bursting bubble of Logan Paul’s Prime drink brand to see if it pops and share a couple other products that consumers guzzled down in mass quantities then tossed aside.
We discourage everyone from listening to this episode and hearing our thoughts on the new ad for NotMayo. Just rip out your earbuds now, because you do not want to know what we have to say.
We turn our TV dials back four decades to analyze an iconic fast-food commercial featuring big fluffy buns and a spunky senior citizen asking one of the most important questions of our time.
We exclaim our questions about companies adding punctuation marks like apostrophes, periods, and exclamation points to their names and logos.
We head into overtime to huddle up on Schwarzenegger, Walken, and whether throwing famous faces into Super Bowl commercials still scores with viewers.
We apply heat to Solo Stove’s decision to ax their CEO after a viral campaign failed to ignite sales and ask the essential question “what is successful marketing?”
We drop the pieces in place to unlock how the best-selling video game of all time continues to obsess players 40 years after its creation.
We smoke out the rough and rugged legacy of the iconic Marlboro Man marketing campaign that rode the trails of pop culture for over 40 years leaving many blackened lungs behind.
We tune in to the TV show opening intros that keep our thumbs off the fast forward button and our eyeballs glued to the screen.
We vocalize our picks for the most memorable, effective, and iconic uses of celebrity voices in commercials and marketing.
We detonate our thoughts on the atomic pink meme machine that swallowed summer 2023 and share candidates for potential future Barbenheimers.
We assassinate assumptions of what bottled water should be by spotlighting a darker, canned brand disrupting the industry with some killer marketing efforts.
We think long and hard about Oscar Meyers’ decision to change the name of the Wienermobile and shake out a few other meat-based mobile marketing ideas.
Get show notes for this episode and check out past episodes of the Speaking Human podcast by visiting speakinghuman.com.
We go green and toast the top o’ the morning by dipping into our pot of marketing gold to share a notable St. Paddy’s Day creative concoction.
We rack our brains trying to google the “KN car” before turning our attention to Kia’s controversial logo redesign.
We talk with Caitlyn Gow, a student at the University of Akron, about her social media marketing class assignment and the choice to write about Discord.
We roast more than chestnuts as we answer a sackful of burning holiday questions about time-honored traditions, classic Christmas characters, and merry memorable marketing campaigns.
We whack around a few ideas on why pickleball has become the fastest growing sport in America and if it has what it takes to make it as a major league.
We get a whiff of what the Twitterverse will look like under Elon Musk, and weigh in on whether that’s a good or bad thing for the social network’s future.
We take stock of Patagonia’s bold move for future ownership and ponder if other corporations might start to consider similar unorthodox succession plans.
We reanimate a selection of brands, startups, platforms, and apps that have gone belly up over the past 10 years.
We hazard a second look at the AutoTrader spot that put the Duke boys back behind the wheel and burn rubber with our picks for the wildest auto ads ever to hit the airwaves.
We navigate back to the year 2012 to re-examine the Mapplegate scandal and map out the most memorable brand controversies of the past 10 years.
We release our personal picks for the most memorable and repeatable catchphrases in modern advertising history.
We rise from the grave to relive the long-forgotten marketing war between DISH network and AMC, and feast on the flesh of other notable zombie-themed ads.
We peddle our thoughts on Peloton’s fork-in-the-road moment, and share a list of past fitness trends we’ve left in the dust.
We take another bite out of the campaign that we talked 10 years ago on the very first episode of this podcast and munch on a couple other more recent snack-related marketing morsels.
We salute the bold, creative, and amusing marketing efforts that awed us with their awesomeness this year and made us think about something other than viruses… if only for a few sweet fleeting moments.
We metabolize our thoughts on the metamorphosis of Facebook by answering a series of metaphorical questions about the life and times of the world’s largest social network.
We harvest our thoughts on the wild growth of plant-based foods and grill up some marketing efforts aimed at selling people on meatless meats.
We sound off on some pitch-perfect examples of “sonic branding” that are sure to be stuck inside your head long after this episode goes quiet.
We tune in to the iconic marketing campaign and subsequent promo spots that helped make MTV a pop-culture juggernaut in the 80s and 90s.
We cool down by scooping out marketing musings on current trends, classic slogans, and captivating flavors from the ice cream world.
We field some big questions about the brand changeup coming to Cleveland and rank the recent history of pro sports teams that changed their names without switching cities.
We unwrap the enigma behind a puzzling new trend more brands are adopting—but we can’t tell you what it is, you have to listen to unlock the secret.
We buy into the idea that maybe “buy” is the wrong word for digital items like movies, TV shows, and music that customers may not actually own.
We consider what an alternative universe would look like if brands advertised what people really think about their products.
We invest everything we’ve got in non-fungible tokens and then try to figure out if what we own actually has any real value.
We storm our brains for ideas on what the next phase of social media might look (and sound) like.
We crash the Clubhouse to share our thoughts on the new invitation-only, voice-based social network.
We cough through a cloud of cigarette smoke as we revisit one of the most memorable anti-smoking campaigns ever made.
We scale the epic marketing campaign around the release of another major streaming service looking to join the ranks of Netflix, Hulu, and Disney Plus at the top of the mountain.
We assemble an all-star cast of top-level talent including Bruce Willis, Hugh Jackman, and Brie Larson to talk about the increasing appeal of ad campaigns for big-name actors.
We do not pass GO as we spin, roll, and pop our thoughts on the best board game advertising of all time.
We pick players in the burgeoning marketing battle between Series X and PS5 consoles, and unlock our personal picks for the best game covers of the Xbox/Playstation era.
We riff on a range of recent marketing and branding efforts—from the unleashing of the Seattle Kraken to breakfast Mac & Cheese to Planters’ rapidly aging Baby Nut.
We quibble over whether all the quacks and quips about the failure of Quibi are well-deserved, and provide some quick reviews of the streaming platform’s bite-size content offerings.
We kick around some thoughts on Nike’s new Ben & Jerry’s-inspired footwear and share our personal picks for the ugliest sneaker designs of all time.
We reflect on recent brand announcements from Aunt Jemima & Uncle Ben’s in light of widespread protests against racism and calls for change across the USA.
We spitball—with face masks, of course—some creative ideas to take working from home to the next level now that it could be the forever future for many employees.
We zoom in on the different ways brands have incorporated social distancing and quarantine life into their advertising.
We isolate some of the brands and products rising up to make life a little easier during this strange stretch living in lockdown.
We pull down our protective masks to spread a few thoughts on how brands are responding to the coronavirus and the massive impact COVID-19 is having on marketing and events.
We sound off on the current state of old-school social media and loop our thoughts on a pair of modern social apps looking to make some noise.
We focus our monocles on the untimely death of Mr. Peanut and tip our top hats to the ads that made us laugh, cry, and want to buy during Super Bowl 54.
We recall how brands from the past envisioned the future, and share a couple of our own marketing visions for the 2020s.
We deck the halls with our thoughts on the enduring appeal of Christmas music and chime in on this year’s crop of holiday ads.
We let our follicles run wild as we discuss the growth and evolution of Movember and brush up on some of the most memorable mustaches in ad history.
We fan out our thoughts on the name of NBC Universal’s new streaming platform and strut out our official ranking of streaming service names.
We leaf through our memories to dog-ear our favorite magazines and talk about the future of the medium moving forward.
We travel to the galaxy’s edge to shine a mouse-eared spotlight on our endgame pick for brand of the year.
We decode the meaning behind a handful of slang terms currently making the rounds in pop culture and social media.
We expand our horizons by talking about brands branching out from their core business or philosophy by launching unexpected products, services or media efforts—and discuss if that’s ever a good idea.
We reveal the sports-based commercials that emerge victorious in our highly selective tournament to crown the ultimate athletic ad of the past three decades.
We endorse our favorite brand-celebrity pairings and explain what makes them masterful marriages of marketing, audience, and influence.
We sing the praises of a band of brands whose powerful use of popular songs in their marketing and advertising plays like sweet music to our collective ears.
We boil this year’s crop of Super Bowl commercials down to the ABCs—animals, bevs, and celebs—and tell you which brands won the big game in each of these key categories.
We leap back in time to the age of Obama, netbooks, and The Black Eyed Peas to revisit some of the most notable brands, marketing, and pop culture of 2009.
We hum with excitement as we share the 10 brands that captured our eyes, brains, hearts, tongues, and screens in 2018.
We come to play… with suggestions on the hottest gifts for kids this holiday season and share our picks for the greatest toys of all time.
We tap into the seasonal flavor that could be the next pumpkin spice and answer three burning questions about the past, present, and future of fall marketing.
We creep into the deadly deliciousness of the Halloween season by sharing our killer picks for favorite candy packaging design.
We test our knowledge of classic advertising campaigns by answering trivia questions about memorable commercials, slogans and brands that have permeated pop culture over the past several decades.
We tackle the brand status of the national football league and audible some wild ideas to rush the NFL into the future.
We unveil the winner of our summer box office challenge and honor some incredible & impossible movies that defined the blockbuster season.
We laugh, chuckle and guffaw through a stream of countless brand tweets in an effort to crown the Twitter kings of comedy.
We rack our brains coming up with creative ways to upgrade products that haven’t taken a significant step forward in far too long.
We sweat out the dog days of summer by shouting out a few key brands we strongly associate with the hot and sunny season.
We spin our thoughts on the marketing power of cover art and hit play on our favorite album covers of all time.
We look back on 100 podcast episodes and share some of our favorite centenarian brands.
We ask and answer the most important social media question of 2018—Yanny or Laurel?
We make you wonder whether you’re listening to real people or artificial intelligence as we discuss Google’s latest innovation.
We premiere our predictions for the movies that will burn up the box office in summer 2018.
We lob up our picks for top NBA team names and slam down our winners for sweetest league logos.
We snap, crackle and pop through decades of brand slogans from “Got milk?” to “Taste the rainbow” to determine which ones are the best of the best.
We guzzle down four new flavors of Diet Coke to tell you if they can beat the real thing and share our picks for favorite Coke can designs.
We unwrap six classic holiday commercials and force them to face off in a showdown to see which ones yield more Yuletide power.
We give thanks for a basketful of brands that have delivered us a bounty of delicious flavors to feast on in 2017.
We phone in our thoughts on the new iPhone X and share our recommendations for some must-have iPhone apps.
We spice things up by talking about the tsunami of pumpkin spice products hitting store shelves this fall.
We gaze in wonder at the winner of our game of summer box office predictions, and share our picks for favorite fall movie trailers. This episode is like a great trailer—all of the best parts with none of the crap in between!
We rack our brains trying to remember whether Santander Bank’s short film “Beyond Money” is marketing or entertainment, and share our picks for a few other pieces of fantastic brand filmmaking.
We order Google, Alexa, and Siri into our podcast gladiator arena to see who emerges victorious in the battle for best voice assistant marketing.
We venture on a quest to determine the impact of Facebook’s new mission, and uncover examples of other brands with magnificent mission statements.
We chomp into Popeye’s new cookie coated chicken to determine its marketing tenderness, and share our award winners for funkiest fast food menu items.
We auction off our thoughts on eBay’s new brand campaign taking aim at Amazon, and share our bids for some of the best brand comebacks in recent memory.
We zoom past two defenders, pump fake, and fire off our list of the top five LeBron James commercials.
We prepare for the rise of the machines by discussing Marble the food delivery robot.
We forecast the five summer movies that will deliver the biggest returns at the box office, and share our picks for best movie posters of all time.
What was the brand meltdown of the month?
We reveal our top 10 forgotten 90s brands
There are a lot of great brand jingles out there… but find out our picks for the most memorable.
From Chumby or Qriocity, there’s a lot of bad tech product names out there.
We name our thoughts on the much-buzzed-about title of the new Star Wars movie and identify what makes the force strong with a company name.
Find out which brand earn the title for best of the best and worst of the worst.
We talk all things Amazon on this episode of the pod.
We unearth the year’s coolest cultural artifacts.
We applaud the most spectacular marketing efforts and trends of the year.
We slap on a pair of Spectacles to get a glimpse at the future of social sharing.
We plug in to the marketing power of Nintendo’s “new” retro gaming system, the NES Classic Edition, and then push start on our favorite NES Classic games.
We catch up with the elusive creature that tried to destroy our fresh, hot Domino’s pizzas back in the late 80s and share our picks for most memorable animated brand characters.
We explode with thoughts on the early extinction of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and share our picks for the all-time biggest product blunders.
We run into the future Marty McFly promised us by lacing up Nike’s new HyperAdapt sneakers.
We reel from a disappointing cinematic summer by picking our top five movie posters of summer 2016.
We hand out medals for the best “non-Olympic” Olympic marketing.
Is it fair or foul for brands to pay for positive internet mentions?
We “just do it”… and by “just do it” we mean share our picks for the best Nike commercials of all time.
How in the name of Pikachu did Pokémon Go become a global craze?
We drive into the future of bold and electric branding by looking at the rapid acceleration of Tesla Motors.
We howl like Wookiees as we watch a woman in a Chewbacca mask go viral and give Kohl’s enough free marketing to fill a Star Destroyer.
We squat with a mystical unicorn who teaches us about proper pooping technique as well as a few lessons for marketing around taboo topics.
From Bourne and Bad Moms to Star Trek and Suicide Squad, we predict the five movies that will bank the most money at the box office this summer.
We talk with Jacob Farrar, Director of the Taylor Institute for Direct Marketing at the University of Akron, about the education, interests and influence of the next generation of marketers.
We flap through ten years of tweets to pinpoint the past, present and future impact of a little bird called Twitter.
We stay thirsty with the “most interesting man in the world” as we revisit one of the past decade’s most successful marketing campaigns.
We talk with voiceover artist Kelley Buttrick about the diverse work she does and the unique approach she has taken to market her services.
We announce the champion of our Emoji Marketing Madness Bracket and reward them with a trophy, a crown, and a gold medal… in beautiful emoji format!
We march through faces crying tears of joy, pizza slices, and piles of poo to crown the champion of our Emoji Marketing Madness Bracket.
We hop in the Wrangler and head off road to shine a spotlight on Jeep as the brand celebrates its 75th anniversary.
We tackle the big game to tell you which brands dominated the digital playing field when it came to building early buzz for their ads.
We peer into Periscope to give you a glimpse of the popular new social platform and explore the value of live streaming as a marketing tool.
Episode 183: Commercial Court What’s in Episode 50½? We freeze, chill and serve our thoughts...
We recap the amazing, astonishing and awe-inspiring marketing feats of 2015 by presenting the winners of our second annual Awesome Awards.
Episode 183: Commercial Court What’s in Episode 49? We sharpen our scissors, grab our cable...
We use the force to force our bodies to sit through an endless array of new marketing efforts incorporating a Star Wars theme while pondering the epic question: Is it ever a good idea to jump on the marketing bandwagon?
We get googly-eyed over a cardboard contraption that allows us to take a peak into a different reality.
We hack our way through USA Network’s clever giveaway to promote the show “Mr. Robot”.
On this special bonus episode, we share our scattered thoughts on this year’s Cannes Lions award winners. Get ready to hear our roar because this podcast cannot be tamed!
We project our thoughts on the biggest marketing blockbusters of the summer movie season.
We experience young love from two different points of view via an interactive video from a frozen dessert maker. Get ready for a sweet podcast treat that may leave you with brain freeze!
We drop our drumsticks in disbelief as Colonel Sanders and The Hamburglar return from the marketing graveyard to win back our brand loyalty.
We consume clever home improvement tips in easily digestible six-second chunks and then regurgitate our thoughts on choosing the right social networks for your brand.
Episode 183: Commercial Court What’s in Episode 41? We YouTube twenty of the greatest brand...
We podcast our thoughts on the trials, travails, and triumphs of a topic very near and dear to our hearts: podcasting.
We witness a murder and get stalked by a hitman via phone, text, email, Twitter, and online video.
We flicker through 30 years of film intros to watch the evolution of the Disney logo from static to CGI to fully customized.
We pit four fast food chains against each other in a bracket to determine whose weird marketing effort won the month of March.
We swipe, tap and laugh through four decades of Saturday nights spanning from Belushi to Murphy to Carvey to Sandler to Ferrell to Fey to Samberg to Wiig.
We nod off to the intriguing sounds, noises and grumblings of Jeff Bridges as he shows us how to bring our wildest dreams to life on the World Wide Web.
We veer off the road while gazing at outdoor ads covered in diamonds, human hair, and cans of snot.
We blitz the big game to find out which brands got the most out of their million-dollar investment on Super Bowl Sunday.
We rewind through the labyrinth of 2014, dodging soccer balls, ice buckets and Ebola to uncover all that was awesome in marketing this year.
We pilot our X-wings into the Star Wars universe for 90 mouth-watering seconds of mysterious wonder to explore the power of teaser marketing.
We give thanks for the elaborate feast of Goldblum that GE serves up in their latest commercial. Oh, and did we mention it also comes with an extra side of Goldblum
We compute the new tagline that has Android aiming to unite all the unique people of the world by plugging them into the same mobile operating system.
We terrify our listeners with blood-curdling reactions to the latest gruesome collection of horrifying Halloween commercials from ravenous brands who want to rip out your eyeballs, hold your beating heart in their hands and devour the dollars in your wallet.
We ride in a Fiat through a magical and twitchy world of crazy beats, horse heads and angry robots, all in hot pursuit of endless fun. My brain is melting!!!
We behold the amazing transformation that takes place when a caterpillar called Clear Channel creates a cocoon and emerges as the butterfly known as iHeartMedia.
We take a bite out of the latest Apple event to find out if the products and presentation from Tim Cook and co. live up to the mammoth media buzz. Mmmmm, apples…
We grunt with everyone’s favorite Austrian bodybuilder, former governor and 80s action star as he flexes his comic muscle in a new marketing campaign for Realestate.com Australia.
We stare endlessly at the recently redesigned Airbnb logo in hopes of seeing all the strange interpretations that have surfaced on social media.
We declare our brand winners of the bloody, sweaty and hard-fought marketing battle that was the 2014 World Cup. Victory!
We marvel at the magnificent Marvel marketing machine by thoroughly examining Thor’s new anatomy, gauging audience expectations for Guardians of the Galaxy, and getting amped up early for the ultimate superhero sequel.
We toast our 21st episode by taking 21 shots, jumping in a Dodge Charger with the Duke boys, and watching them outrun the law while surfing Autotrader.com. Yee-haw!!!
We crash the World Cup to explore how Beats by Dre managed to become the world’s coolest brand by getting banned from the world’s biggest marketing stage.
On this episode of the Speaking Human marketing podcast, we celebrate the arrival of summer by sitting around the campfire, singing along to the S’more Song, and discussing DQ’s new marketing campaign.
We imbibe the latest packaging innovations from top beverage brands. We verify the icy-coldness of Coca-Cola; warm up to the holiday season with Starbucks; and get drunk on originality with Absolut vodka.
We celebrate and denigrate the latest bizarre celebrity-brand pairings. We ride in a Dodge Durango with Ron Burgundy; watch Jean Claude Van Damme make a double impact for Volvo; and try on clothes made from cool by Christopher Walken.
We discuss the high-stakes game of summer movie marketing. We’ll tell you what blockbuster marketing drove our butts to cinema seats and what films flopped at inspiring us to leave our air-conditioning and HDTVs.
Episode 183: Commercial Court What’s in Episode 15? We peep into the marketing future and...
We check out the view from the top with Apple, bash the big guy with the aggressive marketers at Samsung, and contemplate the future for another fruit-named phone—the Blackberry.
GE rounds up some familiar robot faces; Apple plays ping pong with Venus and Serena; and Planet Fitness sounds the alarm on lunks.
We bust out the barbeque, beer barrels and body paint to cheer wildly as a band of vicious competitors vie for glory on Super Bowl Sunday.
Hasbro forces us to fight for the right to use the iron in Monopoly; Axe Body Spray sends us into space smelling really good; and Zicam makes us do battle with a boogery beast.
We look back on 365 days of viral videos, mobile mania, social strategy, content creation, tablet targeting, and other dangerous forms of marketing mayhem.
We flashback to the decade of alt rock, Topanga and Jumanji; exchange LOLs and OMGs with the Pope on Twitter; and celebrate the holidays with Clark Griswold and a pair of Old Navy pop pants.
We crown social media king of the porcelain palace, celebrate twenty years of finger-tapping talk, and get brand-brainwashed by the rhythm and motion of the most-watched YouTube video of all time.
In a last hurrah before the apocalypse, we watch in awe as Black Friday goes nuclear and swallows Thanksgiving whole.
Our heads spin as we watch Target take product placement to a whole new level and our lightsabers dim as we discover the disturbing news that Luke Skywalker and Minnie Mouse are actually brother and sister!
We watch as Snoop Dogg hawks Hot Pockets, Goldblum grumbles about the glories of Paypal, and Felix Baumgartners’ extreme space jump burns up YouTube records on the wings of Red Bull.
We tune you in to the increasing static at Dish Network, fill you in on how Facebook will help fulfill your future wants, and discretely delve into the mother of all scandalous smartphone map controversies: Mapplegate.
We catch a buzz from all the extra bucks handed out by Starbucks, diagnose some common mistakes companies should avoid like the plague on their websites, and take a shot at the latest contributions from Amazon and Toys R Us to the tablet BOOM.
We talk about the one-billion-dollar bite Apple just took out of Samsung, discuss the infectious Internet virus that is “Call Me Maybe”, and review the zombie marketing war AMC has waged against Dish Network.
We create incredibly unreal expectations for the future of this podcast and take a crunchy bite out of Triscuit’s new “Topper’s Tantrum” marketing campaign.